Kootenay Pass has been on my radar for years. It is the pass between Salmo and Creston. It's the highest driveable pass in BC at 5,800 feet. After our tour at Whitewater, with 3 inches of dust on crust, our expectations were low. When we hit the pass, it appeared that it was just crust, no dust. Oh well, the scenery was great, and the sun was out. I flipped a coin and decided to tour off the South side of the pass. We headed up a well traveled skin track and eventually found ourselves on top of an area known as Baldy Rocks at 7,090 ft. The snow quality was slightly improved and we found some good turns off a southerly aspect. Respecting the considerable avalanche advisory, we took it cautiously off the summit. The skiing was slightly reminiscent of our Whitewater adventure the day before. About a 3 inch layer of fresh over crusty. Francine seemed to float a little better and enjoyed the smooth snow.
Definitely enjoyed the touring, and the possibilities would be excellent with a good snowpack. Much of the touring was fairly obvious, but we did pick up a map(after our tour), that would make it easier to put together longer tours. Highly recommend for a good variety of short tours, with options to extend further out.
 |
| Francine climbs the ridgeline to the Baldy Rocks summit. |
 |
| Francine enjoys some low angle turns off the bottom of Baldy Rocks |
No comments:
Post a Comment